Michigan Democrat U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed questioned why anyone would want to live in Flint, Michigan, during a 2016 appearance before a largely white Boston University audience, according to a report.
El-Sayed, the former Detroit health director, offered his views on the majority-black city while answering a question about relocating residents after Flint’s 2014 lead-contaminated water crisis, the outlet reported. Conservative journalist Chuck Ross first surfaced the remarks on Washington Free Beacon.
Speaking at the health policy symposium, El-Sayed recounted how Flint residents describe their attachment to the city.
“You talk to folks in Flint, they love Flint, right, and you’re like, ‘What the—why?’” El-Sayed said.
The progressive candidate said residents stay because the city is home, drawing a comparison to his own decision to move to Detroit. He recalled that colleagues questioned the choice after he left Columbia University in New York.
“To Detroit of all places,” he said people told him. “If you’re going to Cali, I get it, but Detroit? Their winters are worse than ours. There’s nothing there.”
